Those who were shocked to discover, after 9/11, how easy it is for persons linked to terrorism to acquire pilots' licenses may be surprised to discover that, nearly eight years after that fateful day, at least six people known to have -- or suspected of -- terrorist links were able to keep their aviation licenses.

Among them, says a story in the New York Times, was a Libyan national convicted for his role in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The Times story, released late Thursday and largely overlooked by the rest of the media, says the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration didn't remove the individuals' aviation licenses until after the Times had inquired about the issue.

Evidently, the TSA and FAA didn't know that these people were licensed pilots until a small New York state-based company called Safe Banking Systems uncovered the names while testing out a software application designed to search for suspected terrorists among bank records.

From the New York Times:

The list also includes an Iranian-American convicted of trying to send jet fighter parts to Iran and a Lebanese citizen living near Detroit who was convicted of trying to provide military equipment to Hezbollah.

David M. Schiffer, president of the database company, Safe Banking Systems, said his list of terrorists or terrorism suspects was drawn entirely from public records. The F.A.A. records are also mostly public...

-- Daniel Tencer

Logged

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately